This disclosure relates generally to patient transport in hospital and clinical environments, and other medical or patient care settings. In particular, the disclosure relates to the physical process of patient transfer from one surface to another, for example between beds or gurneys in an operating room, or in an examination, laboratory, treatment or recovery location.
In the day to day operations of a hospital, many patients are moved. In many instances, patients are ambulatory and can move from a hospital bed to a wheelchair to be moved yet again. Many patients are not ambulatory. These patients must also be moved with the assistance of nursing and medical staff. Non-ambulatory patients are moved from a hospital bed to a gurney whenever there is a need to move a patient to a new area. Once moved to the new area, they are moved again into a new room or other environment.
When a patient undergoes surgery, even the ambulatory patient is generally rendered non-ambulatory due to the effects of anesthesia. Generally, the anesthesia does not wear off shortly after concluding the operation. A patient is generally moved from the operating table in an operating suite to a bed in a recovery room. In the recovery room, the patient is observed until they “wake up” after the anesthesia wears off. In the recovery room, a nurse can also keep an eye on many patients in the event something should go wrong shortly after an operation.
Once the patient awakens or recovers sufficiently, the patient is then moved again to a hospital room. Most patients are rendered non-ambulatory by virtue of the operation. As a result, the nursing and medical staff must move the patient onto a gurney for transport back to the recovery room. Generally, the patient stays on the gurney while in the recovery room. Upon recovery, the patient is then moved on the gurney to the hospital room. Once at the hospital room, the patient is moved from the gurney to the hospital bed by medical staff, or the nursing staff.
A common prior art device used to move a patient is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. The transportation (or transport) device 100 includes a number of elongated rollers 110 (or 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 166, 117) that are covered by a mesh cloth or vinyl belt 130. A sheet of material 150 is wrapped around the device 100. The patient is rolled from a supine position to a lateral decubitus position (a so called “log roll”), at which time the device is placed between the patient and the surface of the bed or gurney, or other surface on which the patient is lying. The patient is then rolled from the lateral decubitus position back to a supine position onto the device and the cloth material 150 covering the device 100. The patient is rolled onto the device 100 with the assistance of nursing or medical staff.
At this point, the patient is generally only partially on the device 100. The medical or nursing staff may have to push and/or pull the patient across the device to effect a transfer across surfaces. Once on the transportation device 100, the patient must be pushed and/or pulled across and over the device 100. The patient rolls over the transportation device 100 and the individual rollers as the patient is transported to the next surface.
The current device has potential problems. The ride for the patient may be uncomfortable, as the dorsal aspect of the patient does not move smoothly across the belt surface due to the open spaces between the rollers, which are located beneath the belt. This bumpy ride is stressful on patients being transported. For example, patients that have just completed an operation are many times still being monitored during transport and into the recovery room. The monitoring information taken during transport, such as heart rate, ECG (electrocardiograph), blood pressure, and respiratory rate show that the patient undergoes stress.
Another potential problem is related to the hospital staff, such as the nursing staff or medical staff. In moving the patient, the staff must bend over two surfaces and push and/or pull the patient. This method is inherently inefficient due to accepted principles of physics, e.g., friction. This can cause injuries and resulting workman's compensation claims. Also, for patients of significant size and/or weight, additional hospital staff may be required for the physical task of moving the patient from one surface to another with the existing transportation device. These injury and labor force issues can add substantially to the cost of operating a hospital.